Morning journal and courier., 1887-08-13
oUR HARBOR oOum1ssroNERs.


 They Speak Decisively I'm Defense of
 Our BreakWater and JettY Replying
 to Comments in the New York Times
 Which Assai1 These Improvementw-
 The HarbOr Channel Growing i'm
 Depths Not Lessening-What Obser.
 vatiOnS by Colonel McFarIaRe. En-
 gineers and the HarbOr Commission
 CTS ShOw-What Admiral Luce Said
 The Port as a Port of Refuge-The
 Commerce of Long Island sound. Yesterdays New York Times has an sdi- torial article of some length on the subject of projected improvements of New York har- Dor in which it opposes the building of dikes, at any rate as far as New York harbor is con- cerned. It also quotes the New Haven Pal ladium as in substance saying that experi- ence and observation had shown that the breakwater and the jetty at this port were working damage to the harbor and that therefore the half million further approp1ia- tion asked of Congress for the continuation of the breakwater here should not be grant ed. General W. P. Trowbridge (professor in Columbia college, New York; and Captain Charles H. Townshend, harbor commissioners of New Haven, learned last evening from the Palladium and the Hon. N. D. Sperry that the Palladium had been erroneously quoted and that that paper had steadfastly favored the building of the breakwater and the jetty as of great importance to this city and the commerce of this coast. The files of the pa- per were searched in vain for such an article as the Times attributed to it or for any arti- cle condemning the enterprises in question. Harbor Commissioners Trowbridge and Townshend on being interviewed by 8 CoU- RIER representative stated as above and from them it was further learned as follows:
 The Times article certainly does our har- bor and our commercial interests great in- justice. The breakwater and the jetty at our port have more than met already the ex- pectations of the eminent engineers who pro- jected these improvements, and are in fact @ perfect success. They have resulted in 8 decided improvement of our harbor. The breakwater in particular is rendering New Haven one of the most important ports on the coast between New York and Boston. The harbor is actually being deepened. Up on an examination made by three of New Haven's harbor commissioners recently they found that the water in the channel had in- creased in depth. Colonel McFarlanes sur vey of our harbor proves this. The chart which he had made by one of his staff engineers, Henry Goshen, shows that the harbor has been improved and that New York harbor can be likewise improved; and if at New York jetty is built south- ward of Coney Island towards the bar it will increase the depth of the water in the chan neI just as similar improvement has bene- fitted the harbors of Charleston, Savannah and improved the Mississippi river; as is il- Iustrated further in the rivers Clyde, Danube and Rhine. Many prominent citizens of New Haven are excessively annoyed that New Haven should be erroneously cited as an illustration as has been done by the Times. The plan of the New Haven breakwater and our other harbor improvements was devised by such eminent men ir Humphrey, Wright and Newton, and Engi- neers Abbott, Tower, McFarlane and Hous- ton, all men of national fame in their pro- fession.
 Said Captain Townshend: Think of those IF vessels, representing $3, ,0O0, ,O00, which in one day not long since were lying under the protection of our breakwater The effect of the jetty also is to improve the harbor. This is admitted by owners of oyster crafts who have found the water deeper right on Pardee bar than before the jetty was built. The breakwater has proven of great benefit also in keeping the floating ice out of the harbor Great masses of ice used to come in, but do not now. The breakwater proves great ice breaker. The jetty has also been of great benefit in keeping the floating ice off from Oyster Point, as the owners of property there will testify en masse. Then look at the testimony of Admiral Luce who visit ed our harbor recently. Admiral Luce was greatly surprised to find the water in our harbor deeper than he had expected and deeper than the older charts showed. He had no idea that he could bring his vessel so far into our harbor. One of the vessels moved up to within quarter of mile of our docks, over three miles inside the harbor and breakwater. At that time also there were vessels discharging cargoes at the wharves drawing more water when laden than the war vessels did. Professor Trow- bridge and myself recently sounded the harbor channel from one end to the other and found that it had improved in depth. Admiral Luce said on his quarter deck in the presence of myself and Generals Merwin and Greeley that our breakwater and jetty was of vital importance to our commerce, and the com- merce of Long Island Sound am surprised, he said, to find more water here than in 1877. We have looked into the case and found that the breakwater is deepening the channel and keeping the sand out of it and is securing the larbor out. Admiral Luce further said that hereafter he should recommend New Haven port as a rendezvous for his vessels when they came this way, The commissioners further l said that the opinions derogatory to the break 1 water were based upon no investigation of the l ease and only upon idle rumors and gossip of l persons whose arguments were unsusceptibIe 1 ,f proof; and reiterated that the opinions of l studied the subject) as those who had devised those improvements ought ! o have ample weight in the case.